The Shadows: A Novel

Twenty-five years ago, two policemen confront Paul Adams at his home. His mother reacts with fear, insisting she drive him to the station herself. On the way, their police escort stops at a cordoned-off playground where Paul sees blood on the ground. He recalls seeing his friend James waiting in that same spot earlier. Paul’s mother, annoyed by the delay, blares the horn until they move on, promising her son that everything will be okay. In the present, Paul reflects that parents are often wrong.

In the present, Detective Amanda Beck is called to a crime scene at a waste ground in Featherbank with her colleague, Detective John Dyson. Information from a teenage suspect guides them to an adjacent quarry, where they discover the body of a teenage boy. The victim has been stabbed and posed in a kneeling position, and the stone ground around him is covered with hundreds of red handprints.

Paul Adams returns to his hometown of Gritten to see his dying mother, Daphne, who is in hospice care. He meets her care worker, Sally, who explains that his mother has terminal cancer and dementia, but her stay in hospice was motivated by a fall down the stairs.